There are certain artists (Tupac, B.I.G., Public Enemy, Jay-Z, N.W.A. among many) that transcend the genre of hip-hop and reach a level of popularity so intense that their every move becomes news fodder. The spotlight that is now firmly attached to Eminem’s back, can also be correlated into the public microscope he now lives under. Whether or not, Marshall Mathers likes it, he has become more than an emcee and more then an artist, as his rags to riches story has become the subject of a major-motion picture and made him the appointed “poster child” for what is wrong with the youth of America. With the circus like atmosphere of Eminem’s personal and professional life (“crazy insane, or insane crazy”), The Eminem Show could not have been more aptly titled. After all, Em’s trials and tribulations have unfolded like a ten-car pileup that we can’t help but gawk at, fighting hopelessly against our will to take that one last grizzly look at the carnage left in its wake. While The Eminem Show is more then a microcosm of pop culture, it just may go down as the hip-hop generations version of The Osbournes, as its revealing nature (“Cleaning Out My Closet” & “Sing For The Moment”) is replete with the same dysfunctional hue that makes MTV’s breakthrough show so relatable. While Em’s bouts of misdirected rage on the Marshall Mathers LP once threatened to make him a caricature of himself. The Eminem Show exhibits his maturation as he channels his anger into areas he danced around only two-years ago. Though portions of this LP resemble yet another effort from a millionaire artist that we are supposed feel sorry for; on “Cleaning Out My Closet” Em divulges that he was a victim of “Munchousen Syndrome”, gives his Mother a fuck you very much for filing a lawsuit against him and in his words “taking what you didn’t help me get” (money). Yet, once the rough under-belly of The Eminem Show is exposed, it becomes increasingly evident that Em is not only tackling his own inner demons, taking responsibility for his actions “I know it was stupid /but the best thing I ever did was take the bullets out of that gun” (“Cleaning Out My Closet”), but supplying what most of his harshest critics deemed impossible---lyrical substance "rap was never a problem in Harlem / only in Boston / when it startled fathers with daughters who were starting to blossom" from “ White America.” Similarly, The Eminem Show represents a HUGE risk on Em’s part, as the cartoonish production and exaggerated persona that white suburban kids so heavily related too (minus the cute lead-single “Without Me”) on the Slim Shady and Marshall Mathers LP’s is to be frank, not home anymore. But in many ways, that is part of The Eminem Show’s inherent beauty, as it not only captures an emcee at the pinnacle of his craft; it shows a man finally becoming comfortable in his own skin. And where Em’s previous efforts were almost schizophrenic in nature, those self-imposed walls are broken down here, exemplified by the half-sung, half-rapped ode to his daughter, “Hallie's Song”, where the human “Clark Kent” aspect of Em’s “Superman” persona is more prevalent “people make jokes/cause they don’t understand me/they just don’t see my real side/I act like shit don’t faze me/inside it drives me crazy/my insecurities could eat me alive.” Further, “Drips” and “Hailie’s Song” shed a brutally honest spin on Em’s on-again, off-again saga with his now ex-wife, as he laments on “Hailie’s Song” “the years that I’ve wasted is nothing to the tears that I’ve tasted/so here’s what I’m facing/ three felonies, six years of probation/I’ve went to jail for this woman/I’ve been to bat for this woman/I’ve taken bats to people backs, bent over backwards for this woman/man I shoulda seen it coming, what I stick my penis up in/woulda ripped the prenup up if I woulda known what she was fucking.” Perhaps, this is not the type of affirmation that will lead previous targets of Em’s venom (Christina Aguliera and Britney Spears) to forgive any past transgressions, but its surely food for thought. Though The Eminem Show distances itself from previous efforts due to its diversity; for every introspective effort (“Without Me”), there are battle tracks of epic proportions, lead by “Business”, “Say What You Say” feat. Dr. Dre and the LP’s, Dr. Dre produced crown-jewel “Till I Collapse”, which features an irreplaceable Nate Dogg on the hook. That’s not to say that The Eminem Show is without faults, as its excessiveness (77-minutes) becomes magnified in spots; exemplified by the misogynistic “Drips” & “Superman”. Likewise, “My Dads Gone Crazy” with daughter Hailie on the hook borders on overkill. However, Em’s flow is so bananas and his hunger so evident, that’s its hard to front on even these grossly miscast efforts. While Eminem will undeniably have to seek reinvention on preceding efforts; he can’t rhyme about Kim, his Mom and Hailie forever. Yet, as Em divulges on “Business--- “you about to witness hip-hop in its most purest/most rawest form/flow almost flawless”, for the time being, we should cast those thoughts aside and vibe to perhaps the most lyrical effort hip-hop has heard since Nas’ Illmatic. Forget Barnum & Bailey’s, welcome to the new greatest Show on earth. - Matt Conaway Eminem "The Eminem Show" - Aftermath / Interscope Detroit; Commercial; Hardcore The "wigga you love to hate"? On his third album, the emcee who began his career as a cartoon image of the bastard son of Howard Stern has instead transformed into an Ivory Ice Cube, or “White-Pac”, as he dubs himself on “Say Goodbye to Hollywood”. Eminem’s skyrocket to success is the catalyst for his transformation, as the events that have transpired over the last couple of years have shaped him, whether it be catching a gun case, marrying and divorcing Kim in a single-bound, or severing all ties with his mother. While it sounds like an awful lot of drama that probably wouldn’t be entertaining if it was happening to any of the listeners, the aptly titled Eminem Show, chronicles these events, making this hip-hop’s version of The Truman Show. Besides his shoe-in single, “Without Me”, Em has stayed away from creating another album of pointless pop-star bashing and animated hi-jinks, as his surroundings have made a Roger Rabbit like transition from fantasy to reality. On “Soldier”, we actually get a thugged-out version of Marshall Mathers, where he proclaims “Never was a thug / was only fascinated with guns / Never was a gangster til I graduated to one”, and examines the public pistol whipping he dished out last year. Then harsh reality sets in when the sirens blare on “Say Goodbye To Hollywood”, as he contemplates what life might be like abandoning his newfound lifestyle for some good ol’ fashioned prison rape. As irresponsible as he might seem, you can’t help but feel what it might be like to be in his shoes as he spits “Imagine goin’ from bein’ a no-one to seein’ everything blow up when all you did is grow up MCin’ / It’s fuckin’ crazy / All I wanted was to give Hallie the life I never had / Instead I forced us to live alienated / so I’m sayin..”. So even as Em has more-or-less abandoned his funny-styles and rapping-about-rapping, we still are blessed his amazing sentence structure, fused with rhymes within rhymes. The reality of his fast-lane lifestyle is a little hard to swallow after he’s made light of these situations for so long, and when he changes into Super-Misogynist on songs like “Drips” or “Superman”, you begin to think he’s an even bigger asshole than you’d ever imagined, but again, he still keeps your attention with his amazing skill. It’s a bittersweet, love-hate relationship. The best tracks on Em’s new album definitely are his most personal, although this is perhaps his most fully personal body of work yet. Whether your disturbed by his vicious attack at his mother on “Cleaning Out My Closet” or somehow touched by the dedication to his daughter, “Hallie's Song”, it’s equally captivating on both ends of the spectrum - like slowing down to look at a gruesome car wreck, or studying the beautiful detail in Attack Of The Clones. Is it his best album? It’s arguable. He’s pouring his heart out here like never before, but then again at times it seems like he is deliberately trying to fill-up the swear jar with pointless expletives (“lick a million motherfuckin’ cocks per second.” Ahem.) He also treads the line of corniness on rehash tracks like “My Dads Gone Crazy” and “Business”, but then again, each of his albums have always had that one song that did so. And of course, sad-to-say, but the tracks with the crew get the skip button once Em’s spits his lines. Whether paralleling himself to every white hip-hop fan that ever walked the earth (“Sing For The Moment”- which by the way is the best rock-rap collabo since “Walk This Way”, coincidentally involving Areosmith once again), challenging his critics (“White America”) or his competition (“Square Dance”, “Say What You Say”), the fact is, there isn’t a more interesting emcee in hip-hop music today, regardless of how he is channeling his talent. And if you hate him now, he’s already won, because you’re still tuning into The Eminem Show. - Pizzo --

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